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Monday, June 11, 2012

Terrorgheists, Templars, and Tanks

The Dire Wolf Dilemma

Those of you that follow me on Facebook, or who have come here from VampireCounts.net, will know that I'm gathering 40K Thunderwolf mounts to use as Doom Wolves. I'm still looking to trade one of my "B" Thunderwolfs for a new, unasembled "C" wolf. If anyone can help out in that regard, it would be most appreciated.

Otherwise, the wolves are creeping forward in my work queue. I've got about 20 that are still only halfway painted from GW's Iron Painter all-night painting blitz back in '04. They've been bouncing back and forth between my painting table and the "to-do" shelf in my cabinet for 8 years, so I'm anxious to finally put these puppies to rest (or unrest).

In the meantime, I couldn't resist the lure of the Terrorgheist. For all the model's complexity, it goes together very easily. I've got mine just about ready to paint, but first I need to figure out a way to magnetize the wings for removal if I ever hope to transport it in anything smaller than a 10-inch cube. Yeesh!

The First Crusader Squad

This was the first squad I built for my Black Templars, along with their transport. I was still learning, and so the shoulder pads with the chapter icons are on the wrong side (something I would correct in future squads.) Even still, I strove for accuracy when representing wargear and weapons; every Marine Initiate has his purity seals and frag grenades represented on the model.

Neophyte Scouts aside, I don't have any unhelmeted marines in the army. I wanted my crusade to have a faceless, rankless appearance, similar to how Imperial Stormtroopers are completely indistinguishable from one another and bear no unit markings. As the army grew, however, I needed a way to differentiate between squads, and so I added a small roman numeral on the top of each marine's backpack.

One of my next squads was a small fire team armed with a lascannon and plasma gun, which usually took to the field mounted in a Razorback. I'm in the process of expanding the unit with more bolter-armed marines and a "proper" veteran sergeant for when I field them as codex marines.

I had painted a handful of Neophytes (Scouts) to bulk up the squads as necessary. These three are the old metal scouts.

When I began gearing up for Kill Team games, I used a standard codex marine list that focused around small Space Marine Scout squads, each equipped with bolters and one heavy bolter. The idea was to get a lot of cheap troops and throw out as much lead as possible, knowing that the enemy can't possibly make all of those armor saves. I've got four such squads, nearing completion.

Axalon Crusade's Tanks

First Squad's Rhino is one of the old MK 1B plastic kits, onto which I modeled some removable armor in the form of sandbags. Those are plastic sandbags from a Tamiya kit, glued together to fit around the storm bolters and hatches.

The Razorback and Whirlwind have been modified with plastic parts from an Epic Mega Gargant in order to raise their weapon platforms and give the vehicle a little more mass. I've dubbed these modifications The Axalon Pattern, being as they are unique to the older vehicles of the Axalon Crusade.

The Black Templars Gallery has been updated with detail shots of all four tanks. The vehicles are all named after angels. I was a big fan of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series back in the day, which was the inspiration for the names (Neon Genesis having, of course, named its angels after actual biblical angels.) The Whirlwind and Vindicator were named for the angels of rain and thunder, respectively.

The undersides of my tanks are modeled as wrecks, so when the vehicle is destroyed, I can flip it over, revealing the damaged portion. This is something I've carried over into the new tanks, but whereas the MK I Rhino has hatches on the bottom that are easy to bust up, the newer MK II kit has a smooth underside, and requires a little more "creative shredding."

0-3 Heavy Support choices, eh? Funny story, on this: Playing in a map campaign, I had secured a territory that allowed my army to field a fourth Heavy selection. My recurring opponent was an Iron Warriors player who would just rain death all over my army every game with his heavy artillery. I went for the counter artillery, and maxed out my force with four Vindicators. Our last game was template hell, but I still couldn't quite crack the Iron Warriors...